JJUA55032U EU Health and medical
Law

Health and Medical Law is no longer a domestic issue but has now
become an international concern. From a European perspective it can
be seen that beside diseases also medical goods, patients and
health professionals cross borders. This is incentivised through
the free movement provision of the European Union and the
corresponding secondary legislation to create a European Internal
Market. Hence, many areas of law are no longer governed by only
national law, but are equally influenced by supranational (European
and International) rules. Health/Medical Law is situated
between national welfare policy making and commercial policy and
can therefore cause conflicts between the two levels of governance
due to the different interests which cannot be aligned
easily. The objective of this course is to equip the
students with a wide range of knowledge on EU public health and
market integration law and Intellectual property rights its
combined legal effects. This course offers the students the
opportunity to acquire theoretical knowledge in the complex field
of health/medical law while becoming familiar with European Union
law from a practical perspective. This combination of specific and
general skills allows the student to directly apply their knowledge
in both the discussion of real and factual cases. Moreover, the
students will be able to transfer their knowledge of health and
market law into other social policy fields, which have been
traditionally governed by national law, but are now encroached by
Union rules.
The course aims to take a broader approach to health law in
understanding the interaction between health care, regulation,
research and commerce. An important part of this discussion is the
institutional aspect i.e. mapping the responsible agencies and
directorate general to their respective tasks and
responsibilities. Against this background, the course
is designed to provide students with a broad and practical
understanding of European policy-making in Health/Medical Law. The
interplay between the levels of competences and the conflicts that
arise thereof are to be discussed in detail. An
integral part of the course will be the discussion of case-law of
the European Union Courts. Therefore it is expected that the
participants actively engage in the discussions, learn to
critically evaluate the decisions and their consequences. The
students are also encouraged to contribute to the sessions with
their own ideas.

The course will be taught in 3 hour lectures once a week, with
the final lecture being reserved for questions and answers in
relation to the exam/synopsis preparation. The lectures
will inter alia encompass the following topics - Health law
from a supranational perspective: Council of Europe documents, EU
documents and selected issues influenced by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) - European Competence in medical law:
relevant provisions in the Treaties, historical development of the
competence, overview of the Regulations and Directives in health
matters, delimitation to national competences. - EU Market
Harmonisation and its implication on national health policy making:
medical devices, pharmaceutical (e.g. orphan medicinal products),
clinical research, data protection, health care professionals,
cross-boarder health care etc). – Regulatory Aspects
and the Market Approval Procedure, research infrastructures for
biomedical research, biobanks, IPRs in the New Health
Biosciences eg. stem cells related cases like -
WARF, Brustle cases; institutional aspect (who is responsible for
what within the Union) - The Patient: position of the
patient in the EU and international framework, rights and
obligations, judicial review .Moreover, the course is equally
relevant students from other Faculties, whom would like to learn
more about the interdependence of health rules on international and
European level. Students who wish to expand their knowledge from
the course on “European Pharmaceutical Law and IPR” can do so by
attending the present course in order to obtain a more general
picture of EU law in the field of life-science. The course takes a
supranational perspective and does not cover national law in
detail. Students will read and discuss legislative
documents and interpret the application of these documents in the
case-law. Through the solid theoretical background provided for in
the lectures, they will be trained in analytical thinking and in
applying the knowledge to practical cases.

Understand and explain the relationship of EU
market integration and social (health) policy.

Identify the legal problems that originate from this
division of competence in medical law.

Contextualise the secondary rules discussed in the course as in
respect to their impact and their effectiveness in the overall
system of EU market integration.

Conceive coherent and systematic legal arguments that can solve
the conflict between the national and the Union decision-making
process and demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of this
interrelationship.

Demonstrate knowledge of the development stages of the
different market integration measures and their implication for the
individual citizen.

Present and formulate the legal arguments in
concise, linguistically correct and in a logical manner when
discussing case law in class.

The students will be given detailed reading instructions and
texts in the introductory class and additional scientific articles
, extracts , reports or book chapters will be provided along the
course.

There will be a list of legal documents which are freely
available on eur-lex.eu and the case-law from the CJEU/General
Court (www.curia.eu)

Most of the material will be provided by the teacher through
ABSALON. Alternatively, it can be accessed on the internet or via
the University library.

The required readings will not exceed 500 pages. List of
additional reading material: - a selection of additional scientific
articles, legal documents and case law will be published on ABSALON
to allow the students to study some aspects in detail